But I really do like it. I’m not driving, and this is kinda important. I take the skytrain for the most part, and some days I combine that with the bus. I like it because it gives me some time to wake up and prepare myself for the day. And conversely, I get to wind down after work. I spend about 2 hours a day on the train, and sometimes about 30 minutes on the bus. But oddly enough, this isn’t a post about commuting.

No, this is a post about watching TV, or listening to podcasts, because that’s what I do during my commute.

But let’s go back a bit.

I love podcasts, it’s like the old radio dramas but most of the time they’re not dramatic. And I do listen to a number of them, and because of that, I can get a little behind. When Tara was off work I pretty much stopped listening to them as I had a baby in the house and I like to listen to things loudly. But after we moved across the country I picked them up again because I could. It really started with installing the window AC in the kids room. I have a few hours to myself and started up with the podcasts.

But I was really behind and wanted to listen to as many as I could in the time that I had. So I discovered a feature in the podcasting app that I could increase the playback speed and it wouldn’t increase the pitch. Meaning that, while they spoke a little faster, they didn’t sound like the chipmunks. So I stuck with that. I would play them back at 1.3x the normal speed(as that was the main preset) and I got used to it. The only time I would notice that it was faster is when music was being played, as the timing would be all off and it felt sped up.

Fast forward(he he) to the commute time. Tara and I don’t always like the same kind of TV/Movies. I’m the geeky kid and she’s not. So I now watch my geeky shows on the train. And, again, to try and get through them as quickly as possible, I watch them sped up. VLC will allow you to adjust the playback speed as well, and I initially had it at 1.25x normal speed. Again, the pitch wouldn’t change, it was just the pacing would. And really, the only time I noticed anything is when people on the screen would try to speed walk somewhere or run from scene to scene, then it looked a little odd. This would shave off minutes and I was more likely to get an episode of whatever watched during my commute time, one way. And it I did it right, I could watch two episodes a day, 10 a week. This was great! I could actually catch up to things.

And here’s the odd part. While at work I still listen to podcasts, but I can’t go back to normal speed. It just doesn’t feel right. I don’t know why, but I guess I’ve just gotten used to the sped up time and everything else feels a little slow. And it’s really true for TV. At least with the shows I would normally watch on the train. If Tara and I were watching something and I didn’t see it at the increased speed, then it was fine. But if I had some time to watch one of my shows, and it was at the normal playback speed, it felt really….really….slow.

I’ve since increased the video playback speed to 1.33x as that still works. I’m thinking that if I go any faster than that then it’ll start to feel odd and the overall flow of the show will get ruined. And I’m likely to miss dialogue. So I’ll stay at this speed….for now.